February 2017 – Page 3 – William M. Briggs

The Big Bang, Eternal Inflation & Many Worlds

We're back to our Edge series of ideas scientists wish more people knew about. Today is John C. Mather and the Big Bang. Mather isn't pleased with popular conceptions. What…

Culture

Russia’s (Soft) War With The West, Part I — Guest Post by Ianto Watt

The cat is out of the bag, although most people don't realize that because most people still do not see the cat. Why? Simple. They couldn't see the open bag,…

Book review

A Theory of Nothing Leads to Something

A Theory of Nothing by Thomas Barlow was the most realistic science fiction book I have ever read. The science in the book was fanciful, and even silly, but how…

Statistics

Stream: NOAA Whistleblower Claims Data Were ‘Adjusted’ to Make Global Warming Seem Worse

Stream: NOAA Whistleblower Claims Data Were 'Adjusted' to Make Global Warming Seem Worse: Climatology, Not The Planet, Is Running A Fever. A scientist-whistleblower has accused the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric…

Culture

Pascal On Confession

From 100 of Pascal's Thoughts. Truly it is an evil to be full of faults; but it is a still greater evil to be full of them, and to be…

Philosophy SAMT

Summary Against Modern Thought: The Intellect Is The Body’s Form

See the first post in this series for an explanation and guide of our tour of Summa Contra Gentiles. All posts are under the category SAMT. Previous post. Pretty much…

Culture Philosophy

Music, God’s Gift to Man–and to Robots? — Guest Post by Bob Kurland

Editor's note: The original post can be seen at Kurland's place. A few days ago my wife pointed out a news item announcing a robot that (or who?) can compose…

Culture Philosophy

The Circus Is Closed—But Animals Still Don’t Have Rights

You already know the Ringling Brothers & Barnum and Bailey have folded up the Big Tent for the last time, a sad event. Any thoughts we have had about running…

Rudolph Harrier on Reasons Not To Like Prediction MarketsJuly 23, 2024
It was discussion of voting models that made it easy for me to believe your assertion that there are no…
Paul Murphy on Reasons Not To Like Prediction MarketsJuly 23, 2024
and the #1 reason to dislike prediction markets is... they can be used like push polls to manipulate opinion -…
Plantagenet on Reasons Not To Like Prediction MarketsJuly 23, 2024
Addendum I forgot to mention that since I placed my bet a couple months ago the odds are now on…
Plantagenet on Reasons Not To Like Prediction MarketsJuly 23, 2024
At betting shops over here in the UK there seem to be two types of big event bets. The first…
Reasons Not To Like Prediction Markets – William M. Briggs on The Many Horrors, Unintended Consequences & Undesirabilities Of VotingJuly 23, 2024
[…] in the long run. This brings us to the Voting Fallacy, which I wrote about at length here (blog,…